


To Date Or Not To Date

by theianitor



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Dating, Fluff, M/M, Mentions others, bowling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-17 23:00:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19964647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theianitor/pseuds/theianitor
Summary: “Take notes, universe,” Seb thought, watching Jenson from a distance. “I want one just like that, but that likes me.” He sighed. At the moment it felt like an impossibly tall order.





	To Date Or Not To Date

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this was good fun - I don't come from a country with a big dating culture, so I figured I'd write about someone who doesn't either. The disclaimer is that I of course know nothing about dating culture in Germany, so for the sake of this story they don't have much of one either, lol.  
> Thanks Jash for setting up the challenge! <3

Sebastian raised his arm with some difficulty, holding the bowling ball in front of himself and trying to aim. He’d always felt bowling was mostly luck, but he’d never actually tried it before; it just wasn’t a big deal in Germany. As soon as Jenson had found out he’d never gone bowling, however, he’d insisted they go together, so here they were.

It wasn’t quite what he’d been expecting. There were more people than he’d thought and there was pop music playing, and the area where people sat, waiting for their turn, was pretty dark. The lanes were lit though, standing out like a stage, an arena. He took a deep breath and swung his arm back, fingers tensing just a little as he thought about how incredibly embarrassing it would be to drop the heavy ball backwards, and then swung, letting the ball roll, the lights almost making it glow as it approached the pins.

Seb was happy that Jenson had seemingly made it his mission to befriend the ‘new kid’. Really, he was. He’d helped him with his schedule and sorting out a problem with his student apartment, showed him around the university campus and introduced him to his friends. Seb was very grateful. But over the last few weeks he’d started to feel something else, too.

“How do you _do_ that?” Jenson said, throwing up his hands as all the pins fell with a satisfying clatter. Toning his grin down and doing his best to look a lot cooler than he felt, Sebastian turned around and shrugged.

“Beginning luck?”

“Beginner’s,” Jenson corrected, but he was smiling. “I’m glad we didn’t bet on the game, you’d have skinned me!”

He winked, and Sebastian’s chest was suddenly full of that ‘something else’ he’d started feeling lately. He turned away and looked at the screen over their lane, displaying their scores.

“Your turn,” he said. Jenson picked up his ball from the little roundabout where they magically appeared again after disappearing behind the pins, and walked past Seb really close, shifting his hip to nudge him as he passed.

Seb sat down to watch as Jenson aimed carefully and then still seemed to release the ball without much care, turning while it was still making its way down the lane and smirking at Seb before the ball had even hit the pins. It hit the right side, taking a few pins with it, but leaving it at Jenson’s turn.

“You get to go again,” Seb said, pointing. Jenson looked at the remaining pins and his face fell.

“Crap,” he said. “It would’ve looked really cool if I’d gotten a strike...”

The second time around Jenson seemed to be trying harder, and Seb watched him from the darker area, still snickering at his silly joke. Jenson was funny, and charming, and handsome, and friendly... with a horrible emphasis on the _friend_ -part of the last word. He was like that with everyone. Seb had even seen him kiss one of the girls from class on the cheek!

 _“Take notes, universe,”_ he thought to himself, watching as Jenson’s hard work paid off and the remaining pins fell to his second throw. _“I want one just like that, but that likes me.”_ He sighed. At the moment it felt like an impossibly tall order.

“Something on your mind?” Jenson had come back and sat down next to him, putting an arm casually around his shoulder.

“Eh, no, no I was... eh... just...” Seb looked away. His brain wasn’t working, but they were in the dark, basically alone, and if he just leaned in a little...

“Well look what the cat dragged in!”

At the joking remark, Jenson’s arm disappeared so quickly it was as if it had never been there, and they both turned to look. Seb already knew who it was though. There was no mistaking that accent, nor the horrible timing or who might be butting in to make sure he didn’t have too good a time.

“Mark!” Jenson said happily, standing up to greet Mark, Fernando, and a handful of their friends. Seb gathered himself a little before getting up to do the same.

“Seb was just killing me in bowling,” Jenson said jokingly. Fernando looked up at the screen.

“You are not very good though,” he said to Jenson with something like a pitying smile. “I can do better.”

“You would say that,” Seb muttered.

“What?” Fernando had heard him, and tried to stare him down. Seb glared back. It felt good to get the uncomfortable-ness out somehow.

“You would say you’re better than everyone, but I’m not sure you are.”

“Guys...” Jenson sighed.

“Nando, come on,” Mark sighed too.

Sebastian had been planning to let Jenson beat him – or at least catch up a little – but now he flexed his fingers and got ready. Fernando seemed to be thinking along the same lines, squaring his shoulders, and Mark and Jenson agreed to play with them if nothing else to keep the peace in that particular lane. It wasn’t how Seb had been expecting the night to end, but beating Fernando still felt pretty damn good. As he biked home he felt a twinge of something missed though, something that felt an awful lot like more time sitting in the dark next to Jenson.

\--

The following week felt normal, up until Wednesday, when Jenson asked if Seb would like to go to the movies. Seb didn’t quite dare get his hopes up about the whole ‘alone in the dark’-aspect of going to the movies, and it turned out to be just as well. He had about half a day’s worth of excitement before hearing some of the other guys talking about going to see the very same movie Jenson had been talking about. In fact, from the conversations it seemed just about everybody was going on opening night.

... the funny thing was, when Friday evening rolled around, none of them were there. He met Jenson in the lobby and, as agreed, Jenson got their tickets while Seb bought the snacks. But he couldn’t see Mark or Fernando or Kimi or anyone. It was a big Hollywood blockbuster too, and everyone had seemed so excited to finally see it. He’d thought they were just running late, but before he knew it the lights in the theatre were fading to black and they weren’t there.

The most he dared in the dark was to put his hand on Jenson’s leg, excusing it with wanting one of the little bags of sour candies. He quickly pulled it away again when Jenson shifted in his seat, thinking him uncomfortable. All he did was put his arm around Seb’s shoulders like that again, and stole a few of the candies back. _A clever, friendly trick_. Seb rolled his eyes, and when the lights went back up and the credits rolled, the other guys still hadn’t turned up.

It wasn’t until Monday afternoon, when he met everyone in class again, that he found out they _had_ all gone to see the movie. They’d gone to the late showing. Seb happily took part in the discussions about the film; if anything it was part of the good impression that it had been so fully booked that they couldn’t even get seats all together.

\--

“Seb, I eh...”

Jenson was kind of shuffling his feet when he approached Seb at the bike stands the next Wednesday. He also seemed to have trouble looking straight ahead, and Seb found it a little strange. Jenson was usually a picture of confidence, walking down the halls like he pretty much owned the place, so for a moment Seb worried that something was wrong.

“I was...” Jenson swallowed and seemingly made an effort to look him in the eyes. “I was wondering if you’d like to have dinner, on Saturday.”

Seb felt a funny little _thump_ in his chest, like a heartbeat out of place, but then got a hold of himself. It was probably something everyone was going to, and he started searching for a memory of someone mentioning a new fast-food place or something.

“Yeah, sure,” he said, making sure to sound nice and normal and _friendly_.

“Great,” Jenson said, smiling broadly. “So, eh... come by around six?”

“Come by?”

“Yeah, I thought I’d... cook.”

Seb felt that weird _thump_ again and now he was the one looking all over the place. The conversation had gotten away from him and he was sure Jenson couldn’t be saying what he thought he was saying.

“You... at your house? You’re going to cook..?”

“You don’t have to look so worried!” Jenson laughed, slightly more high-pitched than normal. “Mum’s showed me how, and I wanted to... you know.”

“You... are...” It was Seb’s turn to swallow, if nothing else to give himself a moment to find the words and put them in the right order. “Like a date?”

“Yeah!” Jenson said, looking pleased. “Of course like a date. So... see you Saturday at six?”

Seb nodded but couldn’t get another word out. He made a little noise when Jenson leaned in to give him a short peck on the cheek, but then stood there watching as Jenson left for the parking lot. When he finally got moving, it felt safest to just lead the bike back to his apartment on campus. The world was suddenly moving at a really weird speed and Seb was pretty sure he would have fallen off.

The rest of the week passed fast, and apart from Kimi laughing for about an hour at Seb fretting over what to wear, it went by without incident. When he was finally ringing the doorbell he was almost too nervous to feel nervous anymore, and saying hello he dared to get up on his toes for a second to kiss Jenson on the cheek.

He’d brought a bottle of a low-alcohol wine and almost dropped it when he stepped into the kitchen. The table was set with lit candles despite the light being on in the room, and there were neatly folded napkins with cutlery very precisely laid out for them. Wine glasses were set, and there was a delicious smell from one of the pots on the stove.

“It’ll be done in a second,” Jenson said, lifting the lid and looking in on whatever was bubbling away in there. He consulted a sheet of paper which Seb could see was full of hand-written notes and spattered with what looked like tomato sauce.

Now it didn’t feel so silly that he’d chosen to wear his nice shirt. Seb sat down and did his best to speak normally. He’d been friends with Jenson long enough that they could speak freely, he thought, even though this dinner was obviously a little bit more than just friendly.

Soon enough Jenson had set plates on the table, after carefully wiping them and trying to lay things out as neat as any restaurant might have.

“It looks very nice,” Seb said honestly.

“Thanks,” Jenson grinned, looking very pleased with himself. “I was preparing all day, mum left very detailed instructions.”

They both laughed and the stubborn little tension finally lifted. Talking felt as easy as ever, the only difference being that it felt completely natural to not talk and just look at each other now and then. When they were almost done eating, a thought suddenly had Seb giggling.

“I’ve never been on a date before,” he said. “Not a real one, like this.”

To his surprise, Jenson looked sort of stunned. He was staring, and his fork was kind of halfway between his mouth and his plate.

“What?” he said, slowly lowering his hand.

“Well it’s not a thing in Germany, really, not like it is _here_ , so I’ve never really been on a date before and...”

“’Course you bloody have!” Jenson blurted out, finally letting his fork fall. “We’ve been dating for three weeks!”

Seb blinked. Then he blinked again.

“... what?”

Jenson started laughing. “We’ve been going out for three weeks now! We went bowling and then to the movies and...”

“But...” The conversation had slipped away from him again and Seb felt lost.

“Did... did you not think we were dating?”

“But... everyone was... there?” Seb was thinking back so hard it was difficult to talk in the present. Everyone had arrived at the bowling hall, and they were all supposed to go to the movies together, and...

“Yeah, well that wasn’t _my_ fault, I had no idea Mark and Fernando were going bowling that night. And I _did_ book us for the early show...”

“ _You_ did that?”

“’Course I did!”

“But...” Seb was getting frustrated. “But we’ve never even _kissed_ properly!”

Jenson chuckled. “Not for lack of trying... I just thought you wanted to take it slow.”

“You’ve tried to kiss me?” Seb squeaked.

“Well obviously not well enough, as you haven’t even noticed...”

Seb couldn’t help but snicker. It was ridiculous. Jenson was smiling, somewhere between embarrassed and incredulous, but he stood up and held out his hand to get Seb to stand up too.

“So, how about we forget the earlier stuff, and _this_ is our first date?”

“Deal,” Seb said, letting himself be swept a little closer.

“So, if I forewarn you a bit then...” Jenson said, wiggling his eyebrows and making Seb snicker again, “can I kiss you now?”

A kiss had never felt that good before, Seb thought. He’d never miss out on a date with Jenson again.

\- The End -

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for the read! <3  
> All in good fun, as per usual. :)


End file.
